Jim Harbaugh is the next head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. I thought the Chargers were going to go after either Jim Harbaugh or Bill Belichick. I didn't think they would land either of them, but I figured they would try. The last coach, Bradon Staley, was another "young phenom" that the Chargers were hoping would turn into the next Sean Mcvay. That didn't work out, so they went the other route with the trusted veteran coach, Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh is fresh off of giving the Michigan Wolverines their first national championship in football since 1997. That last team beat the ridiculously dominant Nebraska Cornhuskers 1990s football dynasty. That Michigan team had the last defensive player to win the Heisman Charles Woodson. It surprised that a proud program like Michigan hadn't won a national title in a quarter century.
That makes this turn of events a little surprising. Harbaugh played QB for Michigan in the 1980s. The students stuck by him during the scandal/suspension for sign stealing this year. You would think he would coach there until retirement. The rumors have circulated that one hiccup in the Michigan negotiations to keep him is that he wanted protection from termination if that situation escalated. This and some other backroom talks led to this being the reality for Michigan fans.
Also, the current state of the Chargers makes this a little puzzling. Maybe coaches like this way or maybe they don't, but the Chargers are going to have to clean house just to get under the cap. The website Spotrac.com has them at 30th in salary cap rankings with them 44 million dollars over the cap. The new GM(whomever that may be) is going to have to do some Houdini-esque restructures of contracts of veteran favorites or cut them altogether. Harbaugh might say goodbye to players like Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, and Derwin James. All of those players have cap hits of at least 19 million or more, with Mack's being the highest at 38 million. Harbaugh has a great QB in Justin Herbert, but a substantial amount of work to do.
This move is surprising, and Michigan should have thrown a last-minute Hail Mary to keep the coach that just won them a national championship. Harbaugh was less than ten yards away from winning a Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers a decade ago. With Harbaugh as the coach of the Chargers, he will look to join Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, and Pete Carroll as the only coaches to have won both a national title and Super Bowl.